The Bottling Smoke opening last night at Echo Curio was quite interesting, and also fun. I got to meet two of the people who operate the establishment, and a couple other locals who are into the whole outsider/noise scene here. Although no one from Digitalis Industries made it to the opening, everyone will be there next week for the music festival. The exhibit included a wall of album art, some related albums and art from local musicians, and a very cool CD-r tree, which offers people the opportunity to listen to unidentified music. If the listener likes what they hear, they can take the CD-r home with them, but they must do so under the condition that they replace what they take with another unlabeled, unidentified CD-r. Very cool! There was a brief performance from a duo which consisted of a guitar/knob twiddler fellow and a girl who played two eastern-sounding instruments I could not identify. It was heady.

Afterwards, Ilya and I jammed for a while, then I got tired and he went to some party. I’m going to a barbecue this afternoon, and tonight one of Ilya’s various bands is performing at The Tomorrow Show.

Now here’s the news.

• According to a recent story, Toyota has decided to develop cheaper hybrid vehicles in the hopes that they will be able to generate as much profit from hybrids as they do from conventional automobiles over the next three years. By the year 2020 Toyota is planning to produce solely hybrids. It sounds nice in theory, but we’ll see if they can really achieve a 100% hybrid line of cars. I dive a Volvo. Those things are expensive. If I had to get a new car today, I might get one of these Toyotas. Not because I’m some crunchy, hippie loser, but because I’m so cheap I want to go as long as I can without paying for gas. [story]

• In an entirely unrelated-related hybrid story, apparently it’s big news when a UK music label creates a “vinyl-mp3 hybrid.” What that means is, vinyl records which include a code for downloading unprotected (read: DRM free) 320Kbps mp3s of the music to use however the like. That’s nice and all, but Touch & Go has been doing this for ages. So who cares if First Word Records, whose artist roster includes nobody, is starting to do this. According to the article, Saddle Creek does this also, but why anybody would want to buy an album that was released by Saddle Creek is beyond me. Bright Eyes? More like…Crap Songs! Eh, that was a bad one. I’ll do better next time. [story]

• My fellow geeks, let’s join hands and celebrate the birthday of the video game. Forty years ago (forty? Jesus that makes me feel young), the first electronic game that was created to be used in tandem with a television screen was unveiled. I would personally like to thank the mavericks who engineered the first video games. Without you, I would not have these incredibly defined thumbs. They are so strong. They are callused and hardened and dexterous. Also, thanks for Tecmo Super Bowl. Without that game, I wouldn’t have become interested in journalism. How, you ask? At a very young age, I would write newspaper articles based on the results of my video games, to be read at the dinner table every night. My best article was the one about how Freeman McNeil was injured six times in one season as running back for the Jets. [story]

• When the RIAA brings in an “expert” to prove a 57-year old woman is a thief and a criminal, her lawyer hires his own expert to rebuke everything the RIAA stooge has to say. Dr. Johan Pouwelse was a witness in a Dutch case where it was decided the music industry’s investigation of p2p file sharing was not only flawed, but entirely unlawful. It should be interesting to see what happens with this case, and whether or not it sets a benchmark for future RIAA lawsuits. [story]

• CNET is reporting that Mr. Atty. General Gonzales wants congress to enact an intellectual-property bill that would monumentally increase penalties for copyright infringement. Apparently now it should be a crime to “attempt” copyright infringement, which would be punishable by one-to-ten years in prison. One would face life imprisonment for using pirated software. Wiretaps would be permissible to investigate piracy. Homeland Security would also be allowed to alert the RIAA when unauthorized CDs are imported. That last one is kind of stupid, but the rest are rather annoying and also retarded. Not sure what’s going to happen with this legislation, but it seems to have some support. [story]

• Last week I wrote about oral sex being linked to cancer. My valuable insight and huge fanbase somehow saw to it that even Savage Love picked up on the story and ran a long, informative piece about the Johns Hopkins study that showed a link between multiple oral sex partners and an increase in the probably of throat cancer. Well, rest easy kids. Here’s the rebuttal article, which states that there probably isn’t a link between blowjobs and cancer. Feel free to return to your regular schedules of inserting your manhood into any mouth you please without any of that added guilt that you might be giving a girl cancer. I know I will. [story]

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